Can't Forget
by JaycenMackenzie
Summary: Tony Stark pretends that he's not scarred from the battle against the Chitauri. But after the fight, who isn't?


"**A**s you can see, Mr. Stark, the structure won't hold up a Jacuzzi that large," the voice of one of my workers droned on. The rest of his words were tuned out of my hearing.

Thankfully, my forever faithful girlfriend, Pepper Potts, decided to intervene, probably sensing my boredom.

She laid a hand on my arm. "Well, Tony, I think that we've worked long enough today." She smiled at the construction worker. "Thank you. You can go home now. Come back in a couple days. We all need a nice, long day of relaxation."

The man shrugged. "Are you sure? 'Cause-"

"It's fine. Now, can you tell everyone that they are free tomorrow?"

"Sure thing, Miss Potts."

Within minutes, only Pepper and I were left. Oh, and Jarvis.

"Should I book your favourite restaurant, Mr. Stark?" his voice said, echoing through the nearly empty room.

We were still in New York City. It was only days after the battle against Loki and his Chitauri army. There was still a huge crater in our floor. From what Bruce had told us, I was sad that I missed Reindeer Games getting pummeled by the big green guy. Maybe Jarvis had a video from our security cameras. Even with the slight comfort of the Tesseract and Loki were back in wherever the hell Thor took them, I was half-expecting to get attacked.

"That sounds good, Jarvis," I said. "Our regular seat would be great."

"Right away, sir."

I leaned over and kissed Pepper on the cheek. "Meet you back here in fifteen minutes."

She smiled and hurried up the stairs to change out of her dirty work clothes. I looked down at my own grimy shirt and jeans. I sniffed my t-shirt, made a face, and then bounded up the stairs to my closet. I finished tying my tie and combing my hair, all before Pepper claimed she was finished picking out a dress.

I pulled out my phone, back in our in-progress-of-renovating living room, and sat on a plastic covered sofa. I searched up the latest news and came up with a dozens of articles. Even though it was a couple weeks after the battle, a few news stations were still talking about the Avengers. The pictures and videos were fuzzy and shaky. Screams and shouts could be heard in all of the videos. There were pictures of all of us. I was in a lot of the pictures, wearing my Iron Man suit. Hulk was seen smashing an alien to the ground. The Captain was always in his patriotic uniform and holding his shield.

A lot of people would think that me, the famous Tony Stark, would just forget about this battle. They thought that I would joke and laugh my way out of the memories.

Well, they were wrong.

Every night, I wake up in cold sweat, having had a nightmare. I remembered my near-death experience at the end. I thought of how close some of us came to dying. A memory of Phil Coulson flashed through my mind. He practically worshipped Steve. He believed that we Avengers would beat Loki. He was right. I closed my eyes, and although I'm an atheist, I sent a prayer to Coulson.

I thought of the shawarma we had eaten after the fight. Steve didn't even touch his food. I wondered how he was feeling.

"We're not soldiers," I had snapped at him after Coulson had died. I then realized that now we were. We fought in a war, lost fellow comrades, and the memories of murder and killing would never fade.

Clint and Natasha seemed about as overwhelmed as I felt. They had been trained to fight against humans with guns, not aliens and a god. At the shawarma place, Natasha was shaken up pretty badly, but she tried not to show it. Clint knew how freaked she was, and tried to calm her down.

Thor seemed so calm, despite the fact that his brother had tried to kill him and take over the world. I would've disowned that guy already if I were him. But I suppose the reason that we beat Loki, was because we all worked together. If we didn't have one member of our team, we would've been screwed. All of us had something to contribute.

My phone had turned off. I didn't realize that I had been gripping it so tightly. My finger had been on the power button. I turned it back on, and saw that I had received a text from Natasha.

_'How are you?'_ she sent.

_'Just peachy,'_ I replied. I could almost see her roll her eyes.

_'Do you want to meet me and Clint at that restaurant you told me about?'_

How did she know? _'Are you stalking me?'_ I shot back.

_'No… I heard Jarvis make a reservation when I tried to call you.'_

Oh. _'Fine then. See you at six.'_

Just then, I heard Pepper coming down the stairs, her heels clopping noisily.

"Clint and Natasha are-" I looked up from my phone and was shocked.

Pepper was wearing a blue dress, which made her eyes stand out. Her orange hair was in curls, freshly blown dry. She smiled shyly.

"Sorry I took so long," she said. "I had to take a shower."

I said something really intelligent like, "Ah-um-duh…"

She rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around me. She smelled so good. Like flowers.

"How do I look?" she asked, whispering in my ear.

"Well, compared to how you look in the morning, you look absolutely stunning."

Pepper pursed her red lips. I leaned in and kissed her. When we broke apart, her lipstick was smudged. She realized that they might be, so she dug through her purse to find a mirror, then reapplied her lipstick.

"Come on," I said. "Let's go eat some good food."

* * *

"Natasha!"

Pepper hugged her friend, and shook hands with Clint. Natasha and Pepper whispered to each other, glanced at Clint and I, then giggled. I shook Clint's hand, smiling.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Not dying today?"

"Nope, finally. What about you Legolas? Assassinated anyone recently?"

He rolled his eyes. Everyone was always rolling their eyes whenever I spoke. I wish they'd stop doing that!

"I'm fine. Nat's still a bit upset though." He glanced at her, as if expecting her to start crying at any second. I couldn't picture Natasha crying. It's like seeing Steve scream at someone, or swear. And I didn't mean an occassional, "Good golly!" or something of the sort.

We entered the restaurant, the waiter recognizing us instantly. Our tables were at the corner of the restaurant, where we could talk, without people staring at us incessantly. Clint and Natasha sat side-by-side. Their hands were joined. That was the first time I've seen them so close. When we were on the hovercraft, after we retrieved Clint, they hadn't really acknowledged their liking for each other.

Dinner went pretty smoothly. Only one person came up to us for an autograph. Well, actually, just for mine. After dinner, we stood outside of the restaurant. It was warm outside, and the sun was just beginning to set. Cars were honking every second, and people were shouting at one another across the street.

"Well, it was great seeing you guys," Pepper said.

Natasha smiled. "We had a good time."

The girls hugged each other tightly, and promised that they would hang out again soon. We all bid goodbye, and went our separate ways. To be honest, I was glad I saw those two. They were human, just like me; no magic or super chemicals added (I think... unless you counted the Arc Reactor in my chest, but I didn't). Sure, I didn't know Clint or Natasha too well, but when they didn't have their weapons, they were alright.

"Hey, is that Steve?" Pepper pointed to a man with a leather jacket on. He was dancing with a girl on a café patio. Apparently, he wasn't a very good dancer, because he kept stepping on her feet.

"Not exactly the ballerina that I thought he was," I remarked. He seemed so happy, that I didn't want to interrupt him. Pepper must have been thinking the same thing, because she took my hand and tugged me to our car.

"I'm pretty sure that you're no better," she teased.

"Seriously, I'm an excellent dancer."

"Oh, please…"


End file.
